The field of the invention generally relates to methods of generating graphic designs. The invention relates more particularly to a computer method of mass-generating and acquiring design submissions of various products, merchandise, and other items from the general public by means of a communications network, such as the Internet. Moreover, the method may incorporate an award incentive to promote greater participation in the creation and submission of graphic designs.
It has long been understood that one of the foundational premises of successful product merchandising and sales is the aesthetic and outward appearance of a product. While necessity and utility may effect the decision to purchase, it is a particular fashion, style, or appearance that so often determines consumer preference of one product brand over another, and ultimately the consumer""s purchase selection. For this reason, many producers of commercial products and goods consider aesthetic product design as a vital component to their long-term marketing and sales strategies, as well as their ability to compete effectively.
Unfortunately, given the continuous evolution of tastes, trends, and styles, manufacturers find themselves investing heavily in market research and professional design consultants, in order to determine the popular xe2x80x9cnew lookxe2x80x9d for upcoming products. These traditional methods, wherein public opinion is sampled and professional designers are hired, can be unduly costly without necessarily achieving an accurate reflection of popular taste, style, or opinion. This is due in part to the inherently limited number of designs that can realistically be generated by an individual design consultant, or a products design group. Furthermore, market polling and testing only samples a relatively small number of individuals, and is at best an indirect approximation of the popular view of an existing product.
Today, with the advent and growing prominence of the Internet as a communications and commercial medium, producers and suppliers are now better able to ascertain the popularity of their products and product designs, by receiving comments and feedback directly from users/consumers via electronic mail, i.e. xe2x80x9ce-mail.xe2x80x9d However, much of the consumer opinion and feedback transmitted over the Internet has traditionally been limited to textual comments, rather than user-designed graphic images detailing potential improvements and suggestions. This has been due to the substantially burdensome barriers associated with submitting original user-created graphic designs, particularly when no incentives for such submissions are provided. In order to submit a new design, a graphic design software must first be purchased or otherwise obtained. After this is achieved, both time and energy must be spent in creating/editing a design using the software. Without access to a readily available graphic design environment and the proper incentive, these measures are generally not worth the user""s time and effort in order for him/her to merely suggest and submit a new design.
Thus, there is clearly a need for a method which provides an easily accessible means for users/consumers to create and submit new designs for various existing products. In particular, by utilizing the pervasiveness of the Internet, the collective creativity of users in the general public may be harnessed to provide large-scale generation and collection of product designs. The advantage to manufacturers and producers would be the accumulation of a wealth of design ideas, many of which would not have been conceived of independently. In this manner, producers would be able to utilize the collected images to better ascertain consumer trends and styles of the times, and to produce a product accordingly so as to maximize sales.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of mass-generating user-created designs of products and other items designated for design over a communications network, whereby a product manufacturer may acquire a multitude of new design suggestions from the general public.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of mass-generating user-created designs utilizing a graphic design program having online graphic design tools and an online parts catalog, and capable of opening multiple concurrent sessions.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a method of mass-generating user-created designs, wherein interest in creating and submitting new designs of a product is promoted by providing an award incentive.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a networked computer system capable of providing online design tools and an online parts catalog on a remote host system which may be remotely accessed and operated by a plurality of users from client systems, for mass-generating the user-created designs.
The present invention is for a method and system for collectively generating for acquisition user-created designs of products over a communications network. The method and system establishes graphic design software on a remote host system which is connected to the communications network. The graphic design software is configured to run multiple, concurrent, and independent program sessions on the remote host system, and has a database module and a graphic tool module. The database module contains product data for at least one product, with the product data preferably including a plurality of parts images for at least one product. The graphic tool module may be used to visually affect graphic images, including the parts images. The graphic design software is then made publicly accessible by remote interface means, wherein a plurality of users may each run a program session of the graphic design software on the remote host system from client systems connected to the communications network. Next, in response to each of the plurality of users, an independent program session of the graphic design software is run on the remote host system. This includes, under control of each of the plurality of users, selecting at least one target product to be designed, preferably selecting at least one parts image associated with the selected target product(s), creating a final design of the selected target product(s) using the graphic tool module, and submitting the final design to the remote host system. And finally, the final design is storably received on data storage means of the remote host system. In this manner, the remote host computer system may collect a multitude of design submissions from a great number of users.